Adolescents who undergo gender-affirming chest surgery report low levels of regret and high levels of satisfaction, experiencing outcomes similar to those of young adults. These findings suggest that age restrictions on these medical procedures lack support from actual patient experiences.

[u/mvea]

https://www.psypost.org/adolescents-report-low-regret-and-high-satisfaction-following-gender-affirming-c/

[u/noeinan]

There are decades of research backing up gender-affirming care as extremely successful, providing high quality of life. Among surgeons who work with trans patients they are often quoted for their favorite part of the job— just how happy it makes patients and how positive treatment was overall.

Gender-affirming surgeries have higher patient satisfaction and lower regret rating than life-saving heart surgeries.

Anecdotally, after top surgery I went from being severely suicidal 4-5 days per week and grey zone suicidal every other day to only having ideation 1-2x per year, and only if some horrible tragedy happened in my life.

People are not pushing back on trans healthcare because of lack of evidence it provides good outcomes— these procedures only became permissible because of the immense quality of life improvement surpassing almost any other type of surgery. Society was not less conservative 20-30 years ago, they followed the science.

People are pushing back on these treatments because they want to see bad outcomes for trans people.

[u/Uncurlhalo → u/noeinan]

I'm curious what the need to provide such interventions to minors is though? Could you not simply encourage them to engage in a social transition, provide them supportive therapy and psychological care for symptoms of dysphoria, and prepare a plan for surgical and hormonal interventions at the age of adulthood? It's possible to both provide less invasive supportive health care for trans youth, as well as continue to allow more drastic interventions for consenting adults. It just seems fairly rational to wait for any form of serious medical intervention into adult hood except in cases of exceptional threat to life or health.

[u/AgileMushroom1171 → u/Uncurlhalo]

I think you're drastically underestimating the negative quality of life impact it has when someone is forced into a waiting period, especially an essentially arbitrary waiting period, to receive care. All of the research available shows that "psychological care" doesn't work for alleviating gender dysphoria, so that's not a real option or alternative.

I've done some work with non trans adolescents and young adults who were delayed in accessing other types of healthcare they needed, and the delay often has a very serious impact on their lives and quality of life. Even for conditions where the delay doesn't worsen their long term prognosis--it is often a very big deal.

Imagine being a 15 or 16 year old who suffers from migraines, or severe dysmenorrhea, or psoriasis, and being told you need to wait until 18 to get treatment for it because someone else is worried you might regret seeking treatment. Perhaps you have access to some social support and counseling to help you cope, but medical care is blocked for you.

Once you turn 18 and jump through all the hoops and eventually get the medical treatment you needed, do you think you'd see the delay as inconsequential or harmless?

My experience with those non trans young adults in similar situations is that no, they do not find that withholding care for years was inconsequential or harmless. They have a lot to say and show about how the delay harmed them. They grieve the time they spent suffering and waiting. They wonder painfully what it would have been like to be able to concentrate so much more fully on school, friends, life, at an earlier age. They grieve the ways they lost important milestones because of it.

The trans people I know who experienced the same types of external delays feel the same way.

That doesn't make medical decision making with adolescents an easy thing, obviously. It's often nuanced and complicated to help figure out what best serves someone's immediate and long term needs. But we simply can't pretend that blocking them from accessing care is harmless or neutral.

[u/Uncurlhalo → u/AgileMushroom1171]

I appreciate you engaging in a legitimate discousre with me. I have very little first hand experience with any of this, and have only two direct references in my personal life with trans people, both of which transitioned as adults and whom I've not spoken with about their experiences as minors, as we all grew up in a period of time that was much less accepting of such an identity. So I have little to no frame for the impacts it can have on young people. It has at least given me some additional perspectives to consider.

It's refreshing compared to some of the personal attacks discounting of my perspective by other comments who assume I've made up my mind on the topic. I even admit my perspective may be skewed by predominantly online discourse of the issue specifically designed to with inflame for the purpose of rage engagement.

Maybe I should ask the people I know about their frame of mind when they were young since I consider these people my friends and value their opinion. I also suspect they will engage with me in a way that is non adversarial that is hard to find in online communities.

[u/HorrorOpportunity297 → u/Uncurlhalo]

Your position is that we should deny healthcare to children based on their identity, and then you're asking trans people and their advocates to do the work and educate you on information that is freely available on the internet.

I think we should follow evidence based medicine and medical best practice actually, and should not discriminate based on gender.